We are honored to announce that  AFS has received Diversity Abroad’s Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion in International Education (EDIIE) Award, in recognition of the  AFS Global STEM Accelerators program – our full-scholarship STEM & Social Impact virtual exchange program for young women and refugees worldwide that we AFS-International developed and launched earlier this year (and part of the broader AFS Global STEM Changemakers Initiative). Sean Reilly, a representative from AFS-International, attended the Diversity Abroad’s Global Inclusion conference in San Francisco, where he accepted the award on behalf of AFS.

AFS was awarded for the category of  Marketing, Recruitment, & Outreach, and extends its gratitude to staff and volunteers who helped promote the program. Most importantly, AFS wants to acknowledge the more than 150 young women who made this inaugural program so special (and who are now officially AFS alumni!). Here is an amazing quote from one of the participants of the Accelerators program, named Jade, from Burkina Faso: “I learned that Changemaking is not an innate skill — it’s a wonderful, challenging, and step-by-step process which can start with just one person and a dream.” 

Want to get involved in 2023?  This is a global, virtual exchange opportunity for young women worldwide and ALL partners are welcome to recruit. We are thrilled to double the number of scholarships for this program next year — to 360! Applications will launch on February 1, 2023. Stay tuned!

Lastly, the in-person AFS Global STEM Academies program will launch in late November 2023! AFS-USA will recruit 10 full-scholarship participants to participate in summer programs around the world. Sign up HERE to be alerted of the application launch!